Day 4 Dundee vs Aberdeen

After training we immediately headed off to Dundee for the season opening derby match between Dundee United and Aberdeen. Dundee is approximately 60 miles north of Edinburgh and the drive takes us through spectacularly beautiful country - from the Firth of Forth in the Kingdom of Fife to the Firth of Tay and the county of Angus. I'm not sure the boys fully grasped just how beautiful the drive was but I can assure you the parents were most impressed. I tried to take a few pictures but the quality wasn't great as we were traveling along at 70 mph.

Everyone agreed that this was the best match we've seen to date, if not ever. The stadium is fully enclosed and was packed full with 12,486 rabid fans, including 22 fans adopted from the Coastal Soccer Club. The stands are very close to the field and our seats were three rows up at midfield. The atmosphere was electric and the noise was incredible with constant cheers and singing from both sides. You just can't replicate this feeling in larger stadiums. A picture of our team was in the pr0gram (see picture in slide show) and we were announced at halftime.

As for the game, both teams played passionately and had great chances to score in the first half. At the end of the half one of the players for the local team was sent of for diving (his second booking) and the place went nuts. I won't repeat the language here in this blog but let's just say it was colorful, and it came from all ages - from young lads to old men. Dundee played down a man in the second half and scored the game winning goal in the 90th minute. The stadium was shaken to its foundation. As the fans spilled out to the street after the game I think the boys understood how important this game is to the local people. We just don't have anything like this back home.

After returning to Edinburgh we had dinner and the boys organized a 3 vs 3 tournament in the courtyard of our dorm. Seth and Irl climbed Arthur's Seat, the large hill behind the hotel. Curfew is at 11 PM tonight and we're off to Durham tomorrow at 9:30 AM.

Day 4 Training

Breakfast at 8 AM and then off to training at a local sports complex. There were at least eight fields including two synthetic turf and six natural grass. The fields were in excellent shape, similar to the quality we played on at the Region 1 tournament last year in Virginia. Seth asked me to join in the training to become the 18th player. The boys enjoyed "dangling" me and I know I'll be very sore tomorrow - but it was great to relive the glory days, even if it was only in my mind. And my mind was writing checks my body couldn't cash. We trained for 90 minutes focusing on technical ball handling and finishing with an 9 vs 9 scrimmage.

As we were training we noticed what looked like a professional team training one field across from us. It turns out the team was the Edinburgh Hibernians (the "Hibs') of the Scottish Premier League. At the end of our training we watched them for twenty minutes and what a treat that was. The Edinburugh coach had them playing 12 vs 12 on a very small field. The technical ability and the speed of play was off the charts and a real eye opener for our boys. The Hiberians play their local rival Heart of Midlothian (the "Hearts") on Monday in the season opener. Hearts vs Hibs is a renowned local rivalry (derby match).